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Damaged Goods

I think we have all heard the phrase ‘damaged goods’ before. It is in reference to some product that is supposed to be for sale at full price and in PERFECT condition. Yet it is not that way. Something has happened and the product has been damaged and now there are a few options to choose from.
This item that is damaged can be taken back, providing the vendor or manufacturer who supplied it has such a policy. Perhaps it can be repaired or restored to a ‘like new’ condition. The item can be discounted at some set rate by the seller. Or it can be thrown out as trash. The overall value of the product usually determines what is done with the product.
Years ago I was the produce manager at a small grocery store. One of my vendors called up with a special price on some watermelons. It was a good price and my department could use a little boost in revenue so I told them to send me a bin. They arrived and the store owner asked how much, I told him and he said the same place had called the day before with a lower price after I had gone home. Immediately I pulled out a knife and split two of them open. In that business when the same vendor but 2 different salesmen give 2 different prices you check immediately. Those melons were rotten. They were damaged goods and I sent them right back.
Years ago a fella I know was at a department store and saw a rifle for sale at a big discount (at cost as it turned out). Seems some kid had opened a pack of darts and threw one which hit the stock of the rifle. Because the rifle was damaged at the store they couldn’t return it to the manufacturer. And due to their policy on selling quality products they had to get rid of it as quickly as possible. This guy was at the right place and right time. He showed me the gun obe time, and though he knew where the damage was he still had to look for it.
One time my dad bought a brand new car. After a few months he was driving it on the highway when he noticed the car wasn’t quite right. He is somethingof a mechanic so he checked it out but couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Then one day as he was washing the car he noticed the door gaskets on the passenger side were wider than the driver side. Immediately he went into the trunk and pulled back the carpeting. From there the damage was obvious. The car had been hit on the passenger side and mist likely the dealer had paid to have it fixed. The repair was good enough for around town driving but highway speeds soon showed the issue. Over time it got worse. We never did business with that auto dealer again.
Perhaps that car was one that should have been sent to the trash heap. Those melons most likely were.
There is however another useage for the phrase ‘damaged goods’. It has to do with people. Some are emotionally scarred from bad relationships or encounters that they would just rather forget about.
Still others are damaged goods because of where they are in life. They are poor or live in the worst of conditions. I mean no disrespect at all here. But society tends to look down at such people and see that they are damaged goods but make little to no effort to help.
Over in Luke 7:39 “Now when the Pharisee which had hidden him (Jesus) saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him; for she us a sinner.” This is during the account of the woman who brought an alabaster bow of ointment to wash the feet of Jesus. The Pharisee saw her only as damaged goods. By calling her a sinner he was basically saying that she had given her whole life over to sin and that she would never try to improve herself.
What Jesus then did was to show this man that yes she was a sinner but that the man was also damaged goods or sinful. That the difference was that she recognized it, accepted it, and wanted help for it. While the Pharisee was just FINE where he was at, in his own estimation that is.
Thanks to our sin nature that we are all born with we are all damaged goods. It doesn’t really matter how badly damaged. What matters is what is being done about it.
Sin has twisted and broken each of us but Jesus stands at the ready to save us. Once saved we still sin but there is Jesus still standing there ready to restore us. And all we have to do is ask for forgiveness.
Now there are somethings in this life that we will still have to go through. Sometimes as punishment for our sin and other times because its life. Either way we must lean on Jesus to help us get through.
There are instances when the damage won’t be fixed in this life; what we have to do is make the most of it and bring glory to God for taking us through it. For example my daughter has Cerebral Palsy (not as bad as some kids we have met). We have to trust in the Lord perhaps more than some want to but that’s ok. She is damaged goods but only in this life. A couple of years back she gave her heart to the Lord. One day, though it might not be till heaven, she will walk on her own.
People may look down on her or feel pity for her and that’s fine. Because God looks on the heart. He doesn’t see her as damaged goods; no, she is His child. And to Him she is perfect.
Hiw about you friend? Have you asked Jesus to save you? With Him the only time damaged goods end up in the trash is when the lost soul refuses Him and dies ending up in hell for eternity. Now is the time to ask Jesus to save you.